During Homecoming Week, two winners of the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Distinguished Alumni Award will reconnect with their campus roots and share career stories with the University community. Both winners embodied the University’s social justice mission in their public service roles.
Join Roosevelt alumni and friends for the virtual event on Tuesday, September 28.
Bradley Kirouac is one of the 2021 winners of the Distinguished Alumni Award. Kirouac has always fought for his community. From his time in the Marines to supporting marriage equality in Illinois, he has been recognized for his communal spirit. Kirouac was named the Benjamin P. Hyink Student Leader of the Year at the College of DuPage and 30 under 30 by the Windy City Times, all before graduating from Robert Morris University Illinois with a bachelor’s in business administration.
After graduating, he helped build a small maple farm into a nationwide brand, and cohosted Parklandia, an iHeart Radio show about selling everything and hitting the road in an RV with his husband Matt and dog Finn. Following this, he created the Hello Ranger podcast and app about providing access to underrepresented communities in the travel space alongside his husband.
After traveling for 2 1/2 years, Kirouac finally realized he needed to get on the ground floor to help underserved communities. He landed at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma, where he is now serving as an area director. Big Brothers Big Sisters aims to fill a mentoring gap to combat adverse childhood experiences and put children on the path to their best possible futures. Most recently, he was named the second Most Influential Young Professional in Oklahoma City by the networking group Oklahoma City Young Professionals.
Hans Zigmund is the 2020 winner of the Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned his BA in economics from Barat Collage in 2001 and then completed his master’s in economics from ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ in 2004. Shortly after graduation, he started a career in government as an economist with the Illinois Department of Revenue, where he built econometric models to forecast state tax revenue.
As associate director in the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, Zigmund was a leader on pension reform efforts for Governor Pat Quinn. He was later appointed Chief Economist when he returned to the Department of Revenue. Zigmund concluded his time in Illinois government serving as Director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB).
While serving in GOMB, he negotiated a bipartisan and bicameral budget compromise on behalf of Governor Bruce Rauner. The budget helped restore funding to critical human service and education programs and also restored public confidence that had been fractured in the nation’s longest budget stalemate. A few of the many projects Zigmund helped secure funding for in the budget include critical deferred maintenance funding at the Ludeman Developmental Center in south suburban Park Forest, $150 million in funding for the Illinois Department of Corrections Joliet Treatment Center, and the Coliseum at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
Serving as the current state finance director for the state of Alaska, Zigmund oversees statewide accounting operations, payroll services, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, data warehouse and production of the state’s annual comprehensive financial report. He works to bring transparency and accountability to statewide accounting operations and is implementing technology that will make Alaska a nationwide leader in accounting information systems and robotic process automation.
Zigmund has also served as adjunct economics faculty at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, where he has taught elementary statistics, public finance and economics for decision makers.
Zigmund’s advice for current Roosevelt students is that “the most important aspect of your university education is to become a critical thinker. Find someone you like and respect that you can disagree with and still be friends.â€